I loved you because I did

You don't owe me anything. 
Not the sour eyes that twisted in flickering longing,
Not the words that I knitted like winter woolens in your praise.
Not the shelters in summers, the winters, the monsoon rains.
I loved you
not for what you gave,
Nor for the hope I couldn't save.
No promises, no need to stay
You don't have to look back, and witness the glistening of my heart decay. 

I loved you 
in the empty hours,
Like moonlight mildly loves the sleeping flowers.
Not asking for a morning sun,
Just grateful that nightfall had come.
There is no price here, no map or claim,
No whispered vows, no need to name.
It wasn't earned, it wasn't due—
It simply was. 
Because you're you.
So remember, 
my peony-shaped cloud in the sky,You owe me not a single thing,
Not memories, not songs to sing.
No debts remain, no weight.

So go in peace, be free, be kind.
I leave none of my shadows here, behind.
I loved you–like leaving a fairytale.
Soft, and pure, and still.
Not for any one reason. 
Just because I did.

But at the end of one of these hopeless nights,
I won't lie,
Sinfully, ashamedly, I pray, you reach out your arm,
And let me, a frail, weak, wounded bird cry.

Tahseen Nower Prachi is a writer whose head is a koi pond of micro tales too scattered to come down to her keyboard. For more of her little pieces follow The Minute Chronicles on Facebook.